Steve's 2014 Alaska Gold Adventure

[Steve Herschbach]

It was really great having you along Chris - have a safe trip home!

Skip, my brother Tom has a reservation out of Anchorage late on the 25th. Current plan is to hunt gold three more days, then break camp the 25th. I have a book I want to write this winter and so am going to take a tour of the recreational mining sites south of Anchorage on the Kenai Peninsula for a couple days, mostly just to get fresh photos of the sites. Maybe spend a day at Crow Creek. Wrap up a bit of business around town and then head south.

If the weather in Chicken looks good when I head south I may very well stop there again for at least another week. I still have some hunt left in me that three days is unlikely to quell. So the thread will continue on with notes tossed in from the Kenai Peninsula.

[chickenminer]

Steve,

  Thanks for dragging Chris and Tom up the creek to visit. Nice to see you guys again

and finally meet Chris.

  Good luck to you and Tom before he heads out.

[Steve Herschbach]

Hi Dick,

It was certainly a highlight of the trip getting up to visit you and see your prospect. I find high channel deposits fascinating and I think that most probably go undiscovered in Alaska due to ground cover. Very interesting stuff. Thanks for taking the time, and best wishes for you and Robin in your endeavors.

Tom and I are safely back in Chicken and raring to go in the morning!

[Reno Chris]

Hi Dick - Hey it was great to see your operation, looks like you run a good operation and do very well. I agree with Steve that those high channels are really fascinating. Hard to believe that long ago the rivers flowed up there. Meeting and chatting with you was one of the highlights of the whole trip. Its always great to talk gold with an experienced miner.

 

Hi Steve - back in Reno safe and sound with no problems - just a long layover in Seattle. Tell Tom good luck in getting some rest there - the airport staff vehicles all beep loudly and they are running up and down the corridors all night long.....

Hope you guys hit it big today and that the weather holds dry. Did you have a chance to get my tent taken down?

 

Here is a shot of all my SDC gold - the Alaskan stuff on the right and the rough, angular Californian stuff on the left.

[~LARGO~]

Hi Chris,

Looks like you put the Minelab SDC 2300 through it paces!  Nice gold you came home with!

I am curious, did you take the detector in your carry on?  I have heard of someone else doing that, kind of made the security guy nervous somewhat, however.  Unless a person has a pretty robust suitcase, I don't think I would want to have it in my baggage.  I suppose you could pack things around the machine to prevent damage to it.

I bought an inverter to couple with my charger, as well as ordering an 8 pack of Tenergy 5000 mHa  "c" rechargeables, so I will have sufficient power for quick turnaround, plus I have 20 throw away "c" cells.  That should hold me for a few days! 

We in the lower 49 have enjoyed reading about the adventure you guys have had for the past two weeks.  I look forward to trying my new 2300 soon, in some of the old patches you are aware of, and some you may not be, that I located late one day, but never got back to, as it was a long hike away from any roads... 

Gary/Largo

[Steve Herschbach]

Two weeks? How about five and counting!

So Chris has never seen a moose in Alaska and the whole two weeks he is here we look for some. We assure him we had seen some prior to his arrival. None for two weeks, but we finally spot a cow and calf while on the way to Fairbanks to put Chris on the plane.

So yesterday morning a moose literally walks through camp behind our tent. Then we go to parking lot, and there is another cow and her calf! Go figure.

[Steve Herschbach]

Thank you Chris! It appears you left some luck behind, at least for me. I got a nice signal yesterday, and got into a little clay patch. Out came a grimy flat nugget at 1.9 dwt. Luckily I checked the dirt pile again because it signaled again, and much to my surprise it was another nugget that weighed 2.2 dwt. Both are interesting in that they appear to have been stuck together in a clay lump and are of different character than most Jack Wade gold, much more like gold from Franklin Creek, rough and dark. There are at least four different types of Jack Wade gold that I have seen so far. I popped another typical smooth 1 dwt nugget prior to these two showing up, making for a 1/4 oz day. Tom unfortunately came up dry. I think he is ready to get on the plane himself if a few days.

[Reno Chris]

Gary -

I put the SDC in my checked in baggage, I did not carry on because of expected or at least potential problems with the TSA. I packed clothes around it so it was well insulated and both it and the Tecnetics T2 I took with me went through the travel just fine.

 

Steve - great work on the gold. I know why Tom is ready to go - It's warm and sunny here, 84 degrees at 11 am as I write this. Slept like a baby in a real bed last night.It was a fantastic trip, but there are some advantages of home and civilization too.

[Reno Chris]

Any news of how you and Tom are doing, the gold and the weather?

I figure tomorrow you take off for Anchorage.

[Steve Herschbach]

Hi Chris,

Well, a dramatic change in plans for me. This morning I was planning on running to town for a few days, then coming back to Jack Wade to see if I could get a bit closer to two ounces of gold. That would at least cover expenses for me for the trip. The forecast called for rain today. Instead, it was a beautiful, sunny day, and I found my biggest nugget of the trip! A really nice 0.62 oz nugget, putting my total at 1.85 ounces. I have decided that I am best off going out on a positive note and calling it good. With the limited time I have left it would be hard to top today and with camp broke down and packed I think I will just leave it packed. I still plan a short run down the Kenai Peninsula to get some photos but now plan on heading south after that. I suppose I can still change my mind any time between now and when I get to Tok again headed south but this seems like a good time to call it quits. Other than the gold not being what we hoped it has been a good time, what with you visiting and especially the time spent with my brother. The memories at least are invaluable.

Tom got a few small pieces today also to end the trip with 1.14 ounces of nice nuggets. I wish he had done better but that is prospecting for you - no guarantees.

This also wraps up my connection with the Fortymile country as I will not be back again next summer. We did a good job last summer skimming the cream and we beat a bit more gold out this trip, but giving it another go would be a bad bet. So tomorrow morning I am likely to be seeing Chicken, Alaska in my rear view mirror for the very last time. New adventures await.